Unit 1: BI fundamentals
Business Intelligence notes · PTU syllabus (PGCA1942)
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Unit summary
Business intelligence turns raw data into information that managers use to decide. This unit covers types of digital data, OLTP and OLAP (MOLAP, ROLAP, HOLAP), BI definitions and framework, the role of the data warehouse, BI infrastructure, process, technology, roles, applications and best practices.
After this unit you can
- Classify structured, semi-structured and unstructured data
- Compare OLTP and OLAP and the MOLAP, ROLAP and HOLAP variants
- Describe the BI framework, infrastructure and roles
- Identify BI applications and best practices
PTU syllabus topics
- Digital data types (structured, semi-structured, unstructured)
- OLTP and OLAP (MOLAP, ROLAP, HOLAP)
- BI definitions
- framework
- data warehousing's role in BI
- BI infrastructure components
- process
- technology
- roles and responsibilities
- business applications and best practices
Structured
Rows and columns
Databases, spreadsheets
Semi-structured
Tags or keys, flexible
JSON, XML, emails
Unstructured
No predefined model
Images, video, free text
Topic 1
Types of digital data
Structured
Fixed schema, rows and columns
RDBMS tables, spreadsheets
Semi-structured
Self-describing tags, flexible schema
XML, JSON, e-mail headers
Unstructured
No predefined model
Text, images, audio, video, social posts
- About 80% of enterprise data is unstructured; text mining and NLP extract value from it.
Topic 2
OLAP vs OLTP
Full form
Online transaction processing
Online analytical processing
Function
Day-to-day transactions
Analysis and decision support
Data
Current, detailed
Historical, consolidated
Queries
Simple, many, short; insert and update
Complex, few, long; read mostly
Database design
Normalised ER model
Star or snowflake schema; data cube
Size
Gigabytes
Terabytes and more
Example
ATM withdrawal, railway booking
Quarterly sales by region and product
Topic 3
MOLAP, ROLAP and HOLAP
MOLAP
Pre-computed multidimensional cubes
Very fast queries; limited data volume; cube rebuilds
ROLAP
Relational tables (star schema) queried with SQL
Scales to large data; slower queries
HOLAP
Aggregates in cubes, detail in relational tables
Balance of both
Topic 4
What is business intelligence?
- BI: the processes, technologies and tools that collect, integrate, analyse and present business data to support better decisions.
- 1
Data sources
- 2
Data integration (ETL)
- 3
Data warehouse and marts
- 4
Analysis — OLAP, data mining, analytics
- 5
Presentation — reports, dashboards, scorecards
- 6
Decisions and actions
- Wisdom and action
- Knowledge
- Information
- Data
Topic 5
Role of data warehousing in BI
- The warehouse is BI's single version of the truth: integrated, cleaned, historical data that BI tools query without slowing operational systems.
Topic 6
BI infrastructure, process and technology
- Data sources
- ERP, CRM, files, external data
- Integration layer
- ETL tools
- Storage
- Warehouse, marts, data lake
- Analytics layer
- OLAP, statistics, ML
- Presentation
- Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, Excel
- Metadata and governance
- Definitions, security, quality
Topic 7
BI roles and responsibilities
BI programme manager
Strategy, budget, alignment with business
Management
Business analyst
Requirements, KPIs
Domain knowledge
Data architect and modeller
Warehouse and schema design
Modelling
ETL developer
Integration pipelines
SQL, ETL tools
BI developer
Reports and dashboards
Visualisation
Data steward
Data quality and definitions
Governance
Topic 8
BI applications and best practices
- Sales
- Pipeline, targets, territory analysis
- Finance
- Budget vs actual, profitability
- Marketing
- Campaign ROI, segmentation
- HR
- Attrition, workforce analytics
- Operations
- Inventory, supply chain
- Customer
- Churn, lifetime value
Business-driven
Start with decisions and KPIs
Executive sponsorship
Top management support
Data quality and governance
Trusted numbers
Iterative delivery and self-service
Quick wins, user training
Key terms
- Business intelligence
- Turning data into decision-support information
- Semi-structured data
- Data with tags but a flexible schema
- MOLAP
- Multidimensional OLAP using cubes
- ROLAP
- Relational OLAP over star schemas
- Data steward
- Person responsible for data quality and definitions
Quick revision
- Structured, semi-structured, unstructured data.
- OLTP vs OLAP; MOLAP, ROLAP, HOLAP.
- BI definition, framework, warehouse role.
- Infrastructure, roles, applications, best practices.
Important exam questions
Practice questions written to the PTU exam pattern for this unit's syllabus: short answers (Section A style) and long answers (Sections B and C style).
Short-answer questions
- Q1.Give an example of semi-structured data.
- Q2.Distinguish MOLAP and ROLAP.
- Q3.Define business intelligence.
- Q4.What is the role of a data warehouse in BI?
- Q5.Name three BI roles.
- Q6.State two BI best practices.
Long-answer questions
- Q1.Explain the types of digital data.
- Q2.Compare OLTP and OLAP, and MOLAP, ROLAP and HOLAP.
- Q3.Explain the BI framework, infrastructure and roles.
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